The Return of the Baker Street Fanfiction Academy
by Lux Piper
Summary: Continued from Juliet Norrington's original.  BSFA, the school for Sherlockian fanfiction writers, has been reawakened after the Great War. What now?
1. Chapter 1

(The Return of) the Baker Street Fanfiction Academy  
Chapter one (ten)  
Continued from the Juliet Norrington story.

The sun rose from beyond the sea, dawning clear and bright as a melody. Lux Piper watched the sun, wrapped in her grandmother's blue and white quilt. A manila envelope full of yellowing pages sat in her lap, the last page set down only moments before. The sun reflected off the surface of the water and then there were two brilliant sunrises instead of one. Lux lingered, watching the showcase, snug against the early morning chill and her mind turning the contents of the manila folder over and over. It was going to be a busy day—a day that made her stomach knot and flutter if she thought too hard about it. But now, she enjoyed the stillness and serenity of the dawn.

Her lawyer arrived at nine, his mustache waxed and his bald head beaming in the morning sunlight. Lux met him on the front steps, a pen in her hand. She signed along the dotted lines, her hand trembling in excitement and fear, as the lawyer's assistant drove up in a sleek white car of a bygone era.

"It's yours," her lawyer said, pulling a ring of keys out of his pocket, "along with the estate."

Lux took the cold keys in her hand as the assistant jumped out of the car and stood alongside her lawyer. "Why?"

Her lawyer held his palms up in a shrug. "I didn't write the will, I only executed it."

Lux bit her bottom lip and wrapped her arms around herself. Her lawyer and his assistant climbed into his small black car. The assistant winked at her from behind the wheel and she frowned.

Her newly-owned car, beautiful and ancient, refused to accelerate past the respectable speed of fifty miles per hour, however strongly Lux attempted to coax another five miles out of her. Once outside of the city limits she gave up and settled back to enjoy the scenery. The lawyer's directions, though Lux was certain they took her the long way around, did pass through some of the most beautiful Literati countryside. The rolling hills and picturesque farmhouses put her uncertain mind at ease.

Finally she saw the great ivy-covered gates rising in the distance. The Latin motto had vanished behind the crawling vines and the ivy softened the harshness of the metal. Lux stopped the car and got out, the keys heavy in her hand. She fitted the largest key into the lock and spun it, both hands forcing the old and stiff lock to move. It clicked, and she pushed the gates open, snapping vines as they parted. An uneven cobblestone driveway sprawled out before her, lined with oak and pine, their great branches fighting for the sunlight.

The car bounced happily on the uneven cobblestone, its pace quickening like a horse returning home. She rounded a corner and the estate drew into sight, the white pillars and brick chimneys watching her. As she drew closer, she began to see the scars of war in the missing windows, the broken columns, and the graffiti in a disturbing mixture of hot pink, lime green, and neon orange.

Lux parked next to a large sign that read "Don't Feed the mini-Hounds" and walked toward the great estate, her hands in her pockets. She squinted up at the slanting roofs and the discouraging damage of conflict. She reached the wide stairs leading up to the veranda and she laid her hand on the banister. Memories, previously unknown, flashed through her mind. Two scruffy urchins sitting on the roof, a canon full of Valentine's Day cards, a group of slack-jawed and glazed-eyed girls. Lux shivered and stepped up onto the staircase. A woman with rabbit ears running with stacks of books in her hands. A sweet-faced boy in a ratty navel coat followed her with stars in his eyes.

The great old building sighed with relief as she pulled the heavy ring of keys out of her bag. Her heels left perfect patches in the dust on the sprawling porch. She liked that and took a staccato stroll around the porch. Her footsteps snapped and clicked. She liked the sound even better. Lux put the middle key into the lock and turned, the lock groaning in protest as she did. She grabbed the lion-headed door knob and pulled open the heavy oak door. The first thing she saw in the darkness was a pair of familiar green eyes staring back at her.

"Hello," a rusty voice said, "I've been waiting for you."


	2. Chapter 2

(The Return of) the Baker Street Fanfiction Academy  
Chapter two (eleven)

The two women gazed at each other over the sheet-covered table. Their features, nearly identical, were only separated in that Juliet Norrington seemed to be disintegrating. Great clouds of dust flew into the air when she moved and all of her hard edges were smoothed away, so that she looked more like a sandcastle than a woman. Her spaghetti-esque hair was pulled back on her head and she wore a long piece of green cloth was wrapped around her neck and a dusty orange and purple t-shirt.

Juliet broke the ice, "So, I take it you received the paperwork?"

Lux nodded, "My lawyer sent it to me yesterday."

"Is everything okay? I saw that you had the car."

"Yes, they brought it over this morning when I signed the papers." Lux shifted. "I'm still not sure I understand, however."

"What?"

"How did you mean that you are becoming me, and I am part of you?" She crossed her legs. "I mean, I understand the concept—how each of us in a new incarnation of an older version. A few people here have retained their original persona and name, but this is rare. The rest of us are typically built from all of our previous personas, meaning we have had several different names, personalities, and sometimes even appearances." She uncrossed her legs and tucked them under the chair. "What I don't quite understand, is how it happens. So I exist, and you exist, but where is the beginning and the end?"

"And I am me and you are me and we are all together." Juliet shrugged. "I don't know. Eventually I'll disappear, I guess. I was pretty strong, as we go, but it's coming to an end. So you get everything that was mine."

Lux nodded, "That's why you're leaving me the Academy."

"Well, someone needs to take it." Juliet sighed. "After the war I didn't have the strength to restart the program."

Lux frowned. "Am I expected to reinstate the program?"

"If you like. I'm sure the fandom could use it." Juliet shrugged again. "To be honest, I haven't seen much of it lately and most of the former students don't seem to be involved much anymore. The war might have frightened many of them away, even if they don't remember it."

"What do you mean, don't remember it?"

Juliet made a thoughtful noise in her throat, "What do you know about the Great War?"

"Not very much. I wasn't around then."

"We were only a fledgling school, of course, most of the other OFUs survived. But," she bit her lip, "I'd always hoped for more. We had been heralded as this great thing in the Holmesian community but we died before we could come to term." Juliet sighed, "I probably shouldn't do this, but you'll need to have some idea if you're to take this place." She leaned across the table and held her palms up to her mouth. "This might sting."

"What might—" Lux began before she was cut off by Juliet blowing harshly on her palms and sending dust flying into Lux's eyes.

Lux blinked and sneezed as every liquid in her head began to churn and run, her eyes watering and her nose leaking. Her vision blurred—she put the heels of her palms into her eyes and scrubbed. When she opened her eyes again, the lights had been switched off and the dusty Juliet was gone. She froze, her pupils widening as she looked around the black room.

There was a long silence in the room before a long, slow whistle began in the distance. Lux stood up and looked around the dark room as the whistle grew louder.

A sharp, loud voice shrieked, "Incoming!" as a figure in a white tank top and green work uniform, top unbuckled and hanging down around her waist, burst through the overlarge double doors. Her black combat boots slapped against the tile floor as she scampered in and dived under the stretching mahogany table. Lux looked down under the table. The woman under the table, her back to Lux, was crouched low, a knife attached to her ankle and her brown hair falling out of the tight braids pinned on the top of her head. The whistling grew closer and the room began to shake.

The whistling stopped and a burst of fire and light exploded through the room. Paintings fell from their hooks, small Chinese knick-knacks smashed on the ground, the doors splintered with the impact of fire and shrapnel. Lux screamed, falling to the ground and covering her head with her hands. The explosion subsided, leaving behind it burning carpets, curtains, and wallpaper. The woman under the table began cursing under her breath. She slammed her hands on the ground and growled. Lux uncurled herself from her fetal position on the ground, shaking flecks of broken china out of her hair.

Two women rushed in; a petite young woman with hazel eyes and a whip-thin redhead with an eyepatch over her right eye. Both wore black army uniforms with red and gold PPC patches on their left shoulders.

"You okay?" The small woman called across the room.

The woman under the table slid toward Lux and out from under the table. "Yeah, I'm fine." She brushed off the dust from her pants and blew the hair out of her face.

"They've taken the back hall," the redhead craned her neck around the doors.

"Fuck," the woman growled, "go on, I'll be there in a minute." The two agents nodded and sprinted off down the hall.

"What's going on?" Lux asked, standing up and brushing off her knees. The woman turned around, her eyes searching, but they did not focus on Lux. Lux gasped, it was Juliet, whole and undusty. Her skin was smooth, even in the harsh light and she looked down at the broken bust on the floor around Lux's feet.

She sighed and bent down, "I'm sorry, Lord Byron. These people don't have any respect for the talented."

Lux stepped forward, "Hello?" Juliet didn't reply, but continued picking up the shattered pieces. Lux bent down and began picking up the pieces with her. Another blast went off down the hall, shaking the room and shattering more china pieces. Lux and Juliet were thrown against the wall by the fireplace.

"Goddammit," Juliet growled and ran out of the room, her boots harsh and slapping against the floor, leaving Lux holding Lord Byron's eyes and nose in her dusty white hands.


End file.
